Fluid separator



- l 192 Q May .31 7 G. M. KIRKPATRICK FLUID SEPARATOR Filed May l2%. 924 f2 sheets-sheet 1 f7 M Ei ,Z3

im Z726 20%) "H 227/' f g1 9 1MM www :gw zu; al f w I j@ l f e L 1:"1 1p 'w NZZ 35 |h,i\| lIl:

1| H m V mi W' 545 G5 H ll Ili 4J im 21| #5' .56 ..56 ill |l1l\|\i|| xl I H /ly l|Lb| Il y u Il I l Jl f' l #45' 1 May 31 1927.

G. M. KIRKPATRICK FLUID SEPARATOH 2 Sheets-Sheet 2- Fled May 23, 1924 I CCECECEC C .EEEECCCC EECECEECE EEEEC CEEEEEEEE Pasarela May s1, i927.'

UNITED SATS GERGE M. KIRKPCLRICK, (3F PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA FLUID SEPARATOR.

Application nledMay 23,

ture, ut also eliminating impurities such as' particles of carbon and the like; It has for a further object producing an apparatus to be operating in such a manner as to prevent clogging orq the apparatus by the accumulation of impurities. Other objects of the invention will be apparent upon a consideration of the accompanying drawings and the following description thereof.

@t the drawings Fig. 1 is a veltical central sectional elevation of the separating and puritying apparatus which embody features of my invention; Fig. 2 is an enlarged view along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 1s a reduced elevation of the apparatus with other apparatus which is commonly used in fractional distillation work.

Referring to Fig. 3, the separating apparatus is enclosed in a casing 5. The gas or vapor which is to be purified is supplied in any suitable manner, such as by means of an ordinary still or otherwise, to the purifying apparatus through an inlet 6, and the vapor passes through the apparatus as hereinafter t5 described and out through an outlet 7. 'Ihe vapor may then be passed wherever desired but a common method is to pass the vapor to a condenser 8 where a portion of the vapor is to be condensed and the remaining vapor,

and the condensed liquid passes into a mechanical entrainment separator casing 9, through an inlet 11,v and certain portions of the liquid passes out through an outlet 10 to wherever it is desired to store or use the liquid, and other portions of the liquid through a pipe 12 back into the separating apparatus in the casin 5. The vapor or gas which is not condense passes out of the casing 9 through a pipe 13.

5o Although the apparatus which I provide may be used for a large variety of purposes, yet for the purpose of illustrating m invention I will describe it as used in t e fractional distillation of petroleum for the pur- 85 pose of obtaining gasoline and various byproducts. In this case a vapor passing ieee. serial nu. 715,366.

through the condenser 8v is partly condensed in the form of benzine, or some similar product, and the gasoline passes out of the outlet.

10 as a gas and may then be condensed, or if desired the entire gas may be condensed in the condenser 8. n

Referring to Fig. 1 the separating apparatus which I provide comprises a series of banks of baes 15 suitably mounted in the casing 5 and arranged so that the vapor or gals to be purified asses through these banks in series,lthe ban s forming what may be termed a cascade of separators. The gas entering at the inlet 6 passes, in the direction of the arrows, through each of the banks working upwardly through the casing and iinally passing out of the casing through the outlet 7. The baiiies are arranged somewhat as indicated in Fig. 2 so that the 'gas is required to take a long circuitous route in passing through the banks or battles, continual] coming in contact with the sides of the ba fles; and this alone is suilicientto materially purify and separate the gases. The vapors condense more or less and, passing down the walls of the baliies, carry with them any impurities that may be present. However, to improve the separating and cleaning process I apply to certain of these baliies certain liquids which materially assist in the process.

This invention is an improvement on my invention which is fully set forth in my patent application Serial #699,809 filed March 17, 1924, and reference may be had to that application for details thereof which are not material to the present application.

In order to properly apply a liquid to the walls of some of the bailles I insert a liquid inlet pipe 16 which,'in this instance, is connected with the mechanical separator casin 9 and receives the benzine or other liqui which has been condensed in the casin The benzine is passed through line 16 an its `How is controlled by a valve le from which it passes into a distributing pipe 17 which runs across the front upper ortion of the baffles 18 and has openings acing towards the baies. These openings may comprise nozzles 19 if desired, andthrough these openings the benzine is sprayed into the spaces .between the bailles and so as tocover the surfaces of the baiiies, particularly those adjacent to the distributing pipe. This benzine runs down the surfaces of the baiies and is also carried more or less by the gases throu h the baffles to the rear surfaces of the ba es loo' `l forming the function of separating any -of the bank, so that impractice the surfaces of thebaies of the first bank 18 are more or less covered with the liquid. The liquid then runs down and along the partition 20, 5 it being understood that the partitions 2O and 21 extend from one side of the casing to the other and prevent the gases from go-l ing from the compartment 22 to the compartment 23 without passing through the batlies.

The liquid runs along the partition and does not materially aect the bailles in the bank 24, the walls of these baflies remaining substantially dry, and thus geriquid particles from gases that may be passing through. The liquid, however, runs along the partitions 2O and 25 into the an 26 which is mounted on the bank of ba es 27; l0 and this pan 26 has a large number of perforations 43 in its bottom through which the benzine flows into the bank of bailles'27, the perforations 43 being arranged so that the surfaces of these baiiies are coated with the benzine. The benzine lows down along the partition 28 to the pan 29,\and, if desired, this same liquid may be caused to flow continuously in the same manner through all ot the outer banks ofl battles, it being un- 30 derstood that all of the inner banks remain substantially dry.

However, it often becomes desirable to use other liquids than the ordinary refiux liquid i for at least a portion of the cleansing work.

For instance a liquid such as kerosene may be used. In such a case, I arrange to haveA the reux liquid flow out ofthe casing through an outlet 30 and to have the other liquid flow into a casing through an inlet 31. This denserliquid may be supplied in any desired manner, and may be a reiiux liquid if preferred. I prefer for the purpose kerosene and it passes from the inlet 31 into the distributing pipe 32 whichV corresponds in general to the distributing` pipe 17. The kerosene is sprayed into the bank of balies 33, and flows down the walls of the bales and along the partition 34 into the distributing pan 35, and so on in the same manner as the benzine owed through the upper sets of banks. The kerosene then may' b e passed out of the outlet 36 and another liquid, such as gas oil, ma be passed in at the inlet 37 to the distributlng pipe 38. This e outer banks as it iiows downward, and it nally flows through the passageway 39 and out of the outlet 40, its function being substantially the same as that of the benzine and kerosene above described.

In this manner I provide means for manipulating the gas to be purified in various ways. It rst passes through the outer bafiles 15, which are coated with a compara- ,05 tively dense liquid, and it is brought very the particles of here to the surfaces of these battles and flow gills oil is then used to moisten the surface of.

intimately into contact with the liquid in its circuit-ous path through the bank, so that it is very thoroughly scrubbed by the liqlud "and many of the impurities are absorbed thereby; the particles of carbon or other i1npurities flow down with the liquid into the chamber 41 in the bottom of the casing and out through the. outlet 40. The gas then passes through the inner bank of baffles and liquid carried by the gas addownwardly into the oil at the bottom; so that the undesirably solid and liquid particles are eliminated for the gas. The velocity of the gas is materially increased while passing through the banks, as the passageways are comparatively smaller, and this, as is well understood, increases the. efficiency of the apparatus. But upon passing into the chamber 42, the cross section of 9' which is much greater, the velocity of the gas therein is much less than through the battles. As a consequence denser particles of liquid or solid which may be carried along with the as are precipitated owing to the slow speed( in the passageway. This separating process is repeated through each of the three lower pairs of baies, and is then repeated through the bellies in the central portion of the casing. These central baiies, being coated with the less dense kerosene, the absorption process is more effective in eliininating the undesirable gases and liquids. The process is thus repeated until the refiux benzine is reached when a still more sensi- 100 tive absorbing and vaporizing process is carried out with the benzine, and remaining impurities are separated from the gasoline vapor which is passin through the cascade.

I have thus provide a system comprising 105 a series of wet battles alternating with substantially dry baffles; the latter thus provide `for the separation 'of any liquid particles tending to be carried by the vapor stream leaving the wet baille banks. By this means, a dryv clean vapor is delivered. to each wet baille bank so that more eifective heat interchange and selective absorption takes place than would be the casek were the vapor stream entering each wet baiile bank contaminated by high boiling point liquid fractions mechanically entrained in that stream.

The multiplicity and staggered arrangement of the wet baliles causes division of the main vapor streams, entering these batlies, into thin ribbons which must ser ntine their way through these bailles, there y materially assisting in the complete heat interchange between the liquid and the vapor stream, and also assisting towards the maxidmum degree of selective absor -tion of liquid and vaporous phase materlal of closely related molecular structure.

It will of course be understood that this s process may be carried through with various 1w other liquids, and as many banks of baliies as is desired may be used. The reflux, or other liquids used,-may be modiied as desired and modifications within the spirit oi. my invention may be made in the apparatus herein described. Furthermore the process is not to be considered as limited in any way to the purification of gasoline or even to fractional distillation, as Lit may be applied to the separating or purifying of various gases or vapors under various conditions.

l claim as my invention: a

l. A fluid separator comprising a casing having an inlet and an outlet, a plurality of banks of battles in said casing between said inlet and outlet, said banks being arranged in pairs, means for passing a liquid through one only of the banks of each pair, and

- means for passing a gas through each of said banks successively.

2. A fluid separator comprising an elongated casing, a plurality of partitions eX- tending transversely of said casing and separating said casing'into a plurality of chambers, each of said partitions having an opening therethrough adjacent one side of said casing, said openings being staggered with reference to each other, elongated trough baliles vertically mounted in each of said chambers, a gas inlet and a liquid outlet at one end of said casing, a gas outlet at the other end of said casing, and means for passing a liquid in ront of and into some of said bames.

3, A Huid separator comprising a casing, a gas inlet in one end of said casing and a gas outlet in the other end of said casing, a transverse partition in said casing, said partition having an opening therethrough adj acent one side of said casing, a series of vertical bailes mounted on the said partition adja.

cent said opening, a second partition extending above said baflies towards the center of said casing, means for passing a liquid into the upper ends of some of said baffles, a pan mounted in said irst mentioned partition at oneside of said bames, said pan having a plurality of perforations therethrough, a.

second series of baliies mounted beneath said pan, a transverse partition 1n the sa1d casing beneath said second series of ballles and having an opening therethrough whereby a gas passing into said inlet will pass through both of said series of ballles and out of said outlet.

4. A luid separator comprising an elongated casing adapted to be vertically mounted, a gas inlet and a liquid outlet at one end of said casing, and a gas outlet at the other end of said casing, a plurality of transverse partitions in said casing spaced apart., said partitions forming chambers in said casing, each of said partitions having an opening therethrough connecting the adjacent chambers, whereby gas entering said gas inlet will pass successively through said chambers and out of said outlet, a plurality of bai'lies in each of said chambers extending vertically from one partition to the other, means for passing a liquid between the baffles of the upper chamber, and means for directing said liquid downwardly successively through said `other series of baiiles.

y 5. A iluid separator comprising an elongated casing adapted to be vertically mounted, a gas inletiand a liquid outlet at the lower end of said casing, and a gas outlet4 at the other end of said casin a plurality of transverse partitions insai casing spaced apart, said partitions forming chambers in said casing, each of said partitions having an opening therethrough connecting the .adjacent chambers, whereby gas entering said gas inlet will pass successively through said chambers, and out of said outlet, a series of baliles in each of said chambers extending vertically from one partition to the other, means for passing a liquid between the upper series of bailles, means for directing said liquid downwardly successively through the other series of baiiles, means for passing said liquid out of said casing after it has passed' through some of said series of baliles, and means for passing another liquid into the other series of baiiies and downwardly and out from said casing.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto set my hand.

GEORGE M. Kranrarnioir.I 

